Police: three adults, three children found dead in home

MIKE BRANOMAssociated Press

Published Friday, October 29, 2004

ORLANDO -- Two men, a woman and three boys were found dead Thursday in home filled with a lethal level of carbon monoxide, apparently because a car was left running in the closed garage, Orange County sheriff's officials said.

The car's exhaust was close to an intake for the house's air conditioning, which apparently spread the deadly gas throughout the residence, sheriff's Sgt. Allen Lee said. The car's ignition was on, but its gas tank was empty when rescuers arrived around 5:30 p.m., he said.

There was no sign of forced entry at the house and the bodies had no visible injuries. Officials did not release the identities of the victims, who all appeared to have been sleeping, Lee said.

"We don't want to speculate but it appears like a family that just went to bed," he said.

A neighbor with a key to the single-family home went to check on the residents late Thursday afternoon after not seeing the children during the day, Sheriff Kevin Beary said. After seeing the bodies, he backed out of the house and immediately called authorities.

When firefighters first arrived, they smelled something inside and donned breathing masks, Beary said. Gas meters registered the deadly levels of carbon monoxide. They then checked the bodies and left the house, Beary said.

One man was in bed alone in one room, two boys were in bed in another room, while the remaining victims were in a separate room, Lee said.

"Unfortunately, there is an air handler from an air conditioning unit in very close proximity" to the vehicle in the garage, said Lee. "What our early tests have shown is that it would have been able to suck that carbon monoxide in the home and distribute it through the air conditioning vents."

Medical examiners waited for the home to be cleared of gas before entering to begin their investigation.

The house is located in the Waterford Chase subdivision, a bedroom community with trimmed green lawns and ranch-style homes located east of Orlando, in a booming part of the county.

A neighbor told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the house appeared normal, although the usually open garage door had been closed recently, as though the residents were away.

Carbon monoxide poisoning claims approximately 165 lives a year, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.